


If I only could (get Him to swap our places)

by alpapaca



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And I guess, Gen, Time Travel Fix-It, because this is definitely intended to be gen, but that is very ambiguous and really was avoided as much as possible, if you squint you can see some slash probably, jesus fuking christ why hasnt mercury been allowed to be friends with gabe yet, or at least Gabriel certainly thinks it is, or just none, so much in fact that it could be taken to involve basically any of all listed characters, thats a gross oversight that i shall endeavor to fix at some point okay, this is a drabble that got proofread so I'm posting it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-23 22:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17088989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alpapaca/pseuds/alpapaca
Summary: Gabriel wants to set history to rights.“This will be far worse for you than it was for him.”“i know, but he didn't deserve it.”His father agrees.





	If I only could (get Him to swap our places)

**Author's Note:**

> All right, so this is a warm up of sorts that actually got proofread by someone so I smacked some vague editing on and called it a day. That's right folks, this has actually been read more than twice!
> 
> Title from Running Up That Hill, because if any song gives me SPN time travel vibes it's that one.
> 
> Starts in Hammer of the Gods and jumps to Swan Song.  
> Gratuitous use of episode transcripts; not all spoken phrases are mine.

  
  


_“Are you certain?”_

  
  
  


“Stay,” Kali spit out. “We have to fight. The archangels -- the only thing they understand is violence. This ends in blood. There is no other way: it's them or us.”  
  
“With all due respect, ma'am,” Mercury protested, “We haven't even tried talking to them-” He cut off as he choked, blood spilling from his lips.

  
“Who asked you?” Kali snarled, and ignored Baldur’s protesting. She began to open her mouth to let out some other diatribe when a sudden shudder shook the building. Everyone paused in their arguments.

  
The doors to the ballroom flung open with a rush of air and light, slamming gods and tables alike into the walls, before a form coalesced over Kali’s supine body.

 

“I don't want to hurt you,” came the quiet voice, “but I need to take these two out of here. I still need more time. I can't afford to show myself by breaking your binds on them, but I can't afford to let you call him here either. Please. Kali.”

 

“You--” Baldur started, but with a snap he was rendered mute.

 

“Ga-”

 

“Sam.” Gabriel looked up, and whatever the human could see in Gabriel’s eyes seemed to shut him up.

 

“Dude what the h-Ouch!” Sam slapped Dean on the arm to quiet him, glaring lightly, so Gabriel refocused on his task at hand.

 

“Why should I?” Kali stared him down, regal even pressed into the ground. She always had been beautiful like that.  “We have a way of stopping this. We're gonna take it.”

 

“No you don't. You have a way of killing yourselves. And what can I say? I'm sentimental. I don't want that to happen.”

 

“Judeo-Christian asshole,” someone gasped out behind him, but he didn't bother turning as he watched Kali struggle fruitlessly to push away his Grace using her own power.

 

“Oh don't try to act like you're all selfless,” he said instead, “We all fuck each over at least once a century. This is really nothing new, the stakes are just a little bit higher.”

 

“Loki,” Kali started again, voice low.

 

“Don't even try it, Kali,” Gabriel snapped. “You'd sooner kill me just to prove you could.”

 

“We can't just sit by and do nothing while your pantheon destroys our joint world! If anyone gets to end this world, it's going to be me!”

 

Gabriel let out a sigh, body relaxing before his hand snapped out and grabbed Mercury’s, forcing the other god back into sight. Twisting their joined hands, he pressed down with his power until Mercury dropped a small quicksilver knife.

 

“I was only-”

 

“You were only trying to force me into staying here to die, I know.” Gabriel snarked, eyes flat and unamused. Mercury licked his lips, glancing between the knife on the floor and the grip he still had on his wrist. “Listen to me. There's no use trying to talk to him, Mercury. Luci’s not gonna care.”

 

“You don't know that for-”

 

“I've tried, Mercury! I tried every Dad damned day for a hundred years! Nothing made a difference to him then, and now? After thousands of years locked in a cage? I really don't think his mood’s gonna have improved any!”

 

“Then fine, we'll kill him,” Mercury's voice shook, but to Gabriel’s surprise the Roman Messenger continued on. “After everything you've done with us all these years, is killing one angel really what's making you squeamish?”

 

Gabriel growled, then found his thoughts stuttering to a stop as he heard Dean Winchester let out a bark of laughter.

 

“Dude is that really what you're seeing right now?” Mercury glanced over at the older of the humans and Gabriel tilted his head despite himself, curious. “He’s pining down, like, _all_ of you right now. You really think you got a chance at ganking his brother when right now you can't even move?”

 

“Dean-o’s got a point, you know.” Gabriel sighed, letting go of Mercury’s hand and giving him a pat on the cheek. The god’s breathing relaxed then became erratic as he realized that despite losing the physical connection he was still stuck. “Much as it pains me to say it, I'm the _younger_ brother.  Luci taught me everything I know, and he was never as kind hearted as I was.”

  
  
  


_“This will be far worse for you than it was for him.”_

 

_“I know, but he didn't deserve it.”_

  
  
  


“If my brother is called to you he won't care about whatever favor you present to him,” Gabriel said, raising his voice so that it washed across the entire room. “Ever since he woke up all I've felt from him is the desire to see what else he can rip apart. And he won't give a shit about the collateral damage, either.”

 

“If you fight him full power it'll be just as bad as if Michael does,” Sam breathed out in realization.

 

“Ding ding ding! Finally someone gets it. Doesn't matter how much protection warding you put up, there's enough prophetic power surfing through him right now that it's all gonna break right down.” Gabriel took a step back and finally gave in to the urge to unwrap a lollipop as another round of protests sprung from the pinned gods. Playing with the wrapper a little as he listened to them, he allowed his eyes to slant over at Kali. She was suspiciously quiet, so he raised a brow when he found her eyes trained on him. “Are you gonna stay down there forever or what?”

 

“Why do you need more time,” she said flatly. “You haven't been doing anything to warrant any in the first place.”

 

“Oh Kali, you wound me. I haven't _needed_ to do anything yet.” Then he added brightly, teeth bared in a sharp grin, “ _These_ two bozos have been doing all the leg work for me.”

 

A moment for it to sink in, and then-

 

“Wait what?”

 

“We haven't done jack shit for you!” Dean took a few steps forward angrily. Gabriel only laughed.

 

“There's a way to lock the Devil back up, you know,” he said, and the way his voice cut cleanly across the room showed competence that was minimized only slightly by the clink of candy against teeth as he switched the lolly over to the other side of his mouth.

 

Slowly the others in the room quieted down as Sam, brow scrunched, gripped his brothers arm to keep him in place and licked his lips.

 

“You didn't say anything about this last time we saw you.”

 

“Well duh. I mean helloooo,” Gabriel rolled his eyes and pointed at all of himself. “Trickster, remember?”

 

“Angel,” Ganesh bit out.

 

“And I was a trickster then too, in a way,” Gabriel mulled, “And a Messenger. My brother was made for war. I can't fight him head on, especially not now, but I'm more than a match for all of you so what does that tell you? I can trick him back into the Cage, though. I swear it,” he added, eyes glinting for a moment with Grace.

 

“Gabriel,” Sam said, and the angel wondered how the man never failed to make even just one word sound so admonishing. “What do you mean we've been doing the work for you?”

 

“Yeah, cause I sure don't remember you ever telling us anything except a pile of crap,” Dean added.

 

“The rings of the Four Horsemen can unlock the door to the Cage.”

 

“Wait _what_.”

 

“We already have-”

 

“Exactly,” Gabriel interrupted the brothers smoothly, pulling the empty stick from his mouth and dropping it as he turned to Kali. “So do we have an agreement?”

 

“If you make me a blood oath I will release them.”

 

“Deal.”

 

“Wait, Gabriel,” Sam protested.

 

“Don't worry about it Samoose,” Gabriel released Kali and she pushed herself off the ground, languidly reaching for his outstretched hand. He didn't flinch as he felt the prick in the skin of his vessel. “I make a bloodoath to Kali the Destroyer, ensuring my brother Lucifer will be back in Hell’s deepest Cage within twelve months time.”

 

Kali’s dark eyes bore into his for a solid moment, then she released his hand. She quirked her lips mockingly and held up two vials in clear view before tightening her fingers around them until they were dust.

 

Gabriel smiled sadly back at her. Then raised his hand, and snapped.

  
  
  


_“I don't want to be running away anymore.”_

  
  
  


“Okay what the fuck was that,” Dean rounded on him as soon as they landed in a shitty motel a few states over. “And you sure as hell better have brought my Baby or I swear to fucking God I'll-”

 

“Relax, Dean-a-lean.” He refrained from rolling his eyes through sheer willpower. “Your car is out front.  Just peek through the window if you don't believe me.”

 

Then he couldn't help but roll his eyes after all as Dean growled and proceeded to do just that.

 

“Uh, Gabriel, it's not that we're not _greatful_ , it's just that…” Sam trailed off, obviously struggling to find the right words.

 

“You weren't expecting me to hop on your little boat after our last spat.”

 

“Well. Sure.”

 

“Oh those are _so not_ the words I would've used,” Dean input, finally assured of everyone's momentary safety.

 

“Good thing you're not the one who said them then.”

 

“God, can't you be serious for one minute?”

 

“Oh I think I was plenty serious, or did you miss the whole ‘outing myself as an angel’ thing? It's not like I just did that for fun, you know, I think I deserve a little re-”

 

“Gabriel, thank you.” Sam cut in, and the archangel deflated. He really needed to stop letting Dean get him so riled up. It was… unseemly. “Like I said, we're grateful. We're also just confused.”

 

“Well, I caught wind from Kali and Mercury that you two bobble-heads were led and captured and I couldn't really give a shit. But then I thought about _why_ you were led and captured, and I couldn't exactly sit back and let my asshole adoptive family get ganked just because they don't understand the concept of ‘the Winchesters are the universe’s new Whack-a-Mole.’”

 

“Uhm,” Sam said again, and wasn't he just the most eloquent today? Didn't matter. Gabriel refocused on the dirty look Dean was sending him because of the comparison and addressed him again.

 

“As for other things that are serious, blood oaths are very serious. I'm gonna be checking in on you guys for a while until things get sorted out.”

 

“And by ‘things’ you mean the apocalypse?”

 

“Ye-p,” he responded, popping the ‘p’ and taking out a milky way bar. “But you can't tell Cassie I'm here. Not yet. Just let him know the pagans realized that the Cage can be opened if one assembles all four Horseman’s Rings.”

 

“You want us to lie to him?”

 

“Cas won't tell anyone,” Sam added.

 

“Maybe not intentionally, but he's a lot more vulnerable in some ways than you two are. I can't risk my brothers finding out before it's time.”

 

“We won’t lie to Cas,” Dean said flatly.

 

“Why not?” Sam said bitterly. “We lie to people for the good of the world all the time.”

 

And that sounded like a lead-in to a sibling argument Gabriel did not want to be here for. Or even worse, that it might lead to the two of them teaming up on _him_ , so with a quick “Glad we're on the same page!” he decided to trust in Sam’s ability to convince his brother not to spill the beans and snapped himself away. Planning was just so _exhausting_.

  
  
  


_“Dad.”_

  
  
  


“Hey Gabe?”

 

Gabriel turned to face the unfairly tall hunter with a smile and tilted his head in question.

 

“When the gate opens, how does it work? I mean, does it suck angels in, is it keyed to Lucifer’s powers, do we need to do anything special or-” Gabriel’s laughter cut him off. Sam looked with a slightly pinched expression as the archangel held up a hand and smiled in placation.

 

“I've got everything handled, Samathan. I promise.”

 

“Okay now that's not even a real name,” Sam protested and Gabriel just laughed some more, certain that he could keep from giving anything away but hating the need to do so.

 

“Just trust me, kiddo. It will all go according to plan.”

  
  
  


_“Please.”_

  
  


  
“I know you think you're doing the right thing, Gabriel,” Lucifer purred. “But I know where your heart truly lies.”  He turned suddenly, away from the double, and grabbed Gabriel’s arm, twisting the blade until it stabbed through the younger’s chest.

 

Gabriel gasped at the pain. Feeling the blade slice through his Grace was no easier the second time around than the first, and as his body convulsed then froze up the rings slipped out of the hand he had kept behind himself and in agonizing seconds they twisted into place on the ground. A few words slipped from Gabriel’s lips, barely loud enough to hear. As power convulsed into the rings and then out, Gabriel could see the realization flicker into Lucifer’s features.

 

With a smile, he gripped his brother and pulled backwards.

 

“”No!””

 

And there. That was Michael, always too slow to win in any of their races, behind them even now, foolishly getting too close.  The Cage reached out to him as well and Gabriel felt a small smile start to form as he watched in slow motion as his eldest brother's eyes widened out of their squinted rage. He was falling now too, in his dead vessel.

  
  
  


_“Just one more chance.”_

  
  
  


And there. Samuel. Dean was probably holding him back, as what Gabriel could see of the body jerked as it came closer. The ground clipped in at such a point he couldn't really get a good look at him. It was a shame the third Winchester couldn't be saved from this, but some things just couldn't be avoided. There were priorities to keep in mind.

 

The gate was squeezing closed now, everything it was meant to reach for contained within its grasp, and the rings were fading out of sight in the space behind Michael's back.

 

Every small slip of archangel grace was pulled in the gap, so with a groan Gabriel pulled his sword from his chest. He would heal. He couldn't die now. The Cage wouldn't let him. It was only with the slightest of pressure changes that he realized there were now wardings pressing in on him from all sides. He could feel the oath he had to Kali slowly unwind. It was tight in here, but he would manage. He'd gotten what he'd wanted after all.

 

“Gabriel what were you thinking?” Michael bit out. “This was my _destiny_! You were supposed to let me kill him!”

 

With a snarl, Lucifer threw himself at their older brother and soon enough Gabriel was buffeted by a dozen wings sliding in and out of seven different planes of existence as his brothers fought within his space.

 

The feeling of their confines, the way his Grace couldn't hide the way habit made it want to, the way the boundaries of the Cage pushed back at him every time he brushed against them, was already more than enough to put him on edge.

 

“Oh yeah,” he let out with a laugh. “We're all gonna go insane.”

 

Michael shoved Lucifer off himself and spared a moment to give Gabriel a glare. “You say that like that's a _good_ thing. This Cage is going to rip us apart.”

 

“If it doesn't, _I_ will,” Lucifer added.

 

“Well it sure beats being dead and useless.” Gabriel tilts his head, ignoring the sensation of his Vessel being stripped away from his Grace in favor of curiously watching the same thing happen to his brothers. “You two would've ended up here either way,” he mused.  His brothers both flashed realization. They always did seem to progress at the same speed. It was funny that despite all the changes, there were still so many ways in which they were the same.

 

“You Knew.”

 

“You Saw what the future held for us?”

 

“I lived it,” Gabriel agreed. “Didn't like it very much.”

 

“So what? Father gave you a second chance, “Michael snarled, “And you just locked us up again? Why'd you even bother? Useless.”

 

Gabriel laughed. “Dad let me do it though. He knew this was my plan and didn't do a damned thing. Hell, I'm his Messenger. He practically gave me his approval. So what do you say to that, huh?”

 

“Was this worth it, little brother?” Lucifer advanced on him, angry power pulsating within their confines.

 

Gabriel blinked and thought about two brothers who no longer had to fight.  About the gods who would live to terrorize a few more hunters and strike a few more pagan deals.  His wings brushed up against the walls of the Cage and were snapped at in response. He let out a tired grin. “Yeah,” he said, “I think we are all exactly where we belong.”


End file.
